More Than Just Bruised Knuckles
by faller02
Summary: Dipper Pines made the worst mistake of his life. The one he would regret for eternity. What mistake is that you ask? The mistake of making a deal with the demon, Bill Cipher. His family, his friends, they were scared-no-terrified of him. You may ask: "Haven't you heard the saying 'Don't make a deal with the devil?" He didn't want this. He had no choice. He was being controlled.
1. Prologue

**~Dipper's POV~**  
You know when people say they love you, no matter what you do? You know that? Do you know the feeling when you did something to them, and it wasn't even that bad, but you still feel really guilty...like you hurt them? Imagine actually hurting them. Terribly. And they still love you. Imagine how you would feel.

 _Upset?_  
 _Terrible?_  
 _Stomach-Churning?_  
 _Guilty?_  
 _Sad?_

Possibly all those things? Imagine all those traits smashed together. Not a good combination. And you know what's even worse? A demon.

What?

A demon?

That just seems so random.

Well, not really. When you have a demon controlling your each and every move and who's literally stuck inside your mind...giving you negative thoughts and TERRIBLE ideas, it's not the best. At all.

Pain to you? A small paper cut is nothing compared to what I've been though? That huge scrape you got on your knee? Nothing compared to this.

Your family? You yelling at them and they're sad or mad with you? Nothing. You accidentally hurt someone's feelings? Not the end of the world.

How about you holding a gun to your sister's chin with no control? Now that is the kind of bad I'm talking about. I'm going to try and remember what happened and tell you everything so you, reader, can go and get help.

Because

 _ **pLeAsE.**_

 _ **I'm BeGGinG yOU**_

 _ **gO**_

 _ **gET**_

 _ **hELp.**_


	2. Chapter One

**Dipper's POV**  
To start off, you need to know something. This is my story, and it's not a happy one. It's not one of those fairytales Mabel loved to read when we were little, and it does not have a happy ending...if this were a movie? It'd be a horror one. Well, that's how it felt at least. This story is all 100% true. I remember it all. I'm telling you all this so you can help me out, so you can get help, so you can retell this story(though I don't see why you'd want to), so you can not make the same mistake as I did. My name is Dipper Pines, I'm 12 years old, and this is the story of what happened back in Gravity Falls in the summer of 2012.

* * *

An old man who went by the name of Stanford Pines gathered up some old scrolls underneath his arms as he grunted and heaved up a case as well that had some other equipment and possibly...a dead owl, but that was yet to be discovered, and he could care less on how it was there or not. It didn't matter. He grunted as he trudged up those creaky, wooden stairs that belonged to his rather old basement he had for 30 years, though yet it was the same place. Not a thing changed. As he pushed open the basement door,(which was a vending machine)he squinted as a ray of sunlight flashed through the gift shop. He continued to walk and pass the room he was in until he reached the table beside the living room. The old man sighed as he put down those scrolls and cases he had with him onto the wooden table. It was then he called the family meeting. Sounds of...pugs yipping and Spanish yelling were heard as well as little footsteps running on the floor. Mabel and Dipper soon appeared in the room, looking concerned and confused.

"Ah, yes, children." Ford said with a small smile before gesturing to the chairs that were beside the table. "Have a seat." The kids looked at one-another and sat down on the old chairs, facing their attention to their great uncle. "Now," He started off his sentence and grabbed a scroll with a sigh, gulping on the inside. "Do any of you recognize this symbol?" He flipped down the scroll and opened it up...and there he was on there. With cryptic hieroglyphics pasted on it.

The preteen boy's heart stopped and he felt a lump in his throat as he stared at the scroll his uncle held before him in vain. That guy. "Bill." He stated blandly with a glare.

He seemed surprised. "You-you know him?"

" _Know_ him?" Dipper scoffed. "He's been terrorizing us all summer!" Now his eyes weren't just full of hatred, they were full of worry too.

"Dipper's been pretty paranoid since Bill turned him into a living sock puppet." Mabel chimed in, her face looking a bit worried as well.

"But the important thing is we beat him twice."

"Once with kittens and once with tickles!" She grinned.

He frowned. "It's a lot more heroic than it sounds."

"The fact that you dealt with Bill is gravely serious." Stanford stated, fixing his glasses.

"So..." The 12-year-old boy started off his sentence, curious for answers. "How do you know Bill?"

The old man shook the question away. "I've encountered many dark beings in my time, Dipper. What matters are his powers are getting stronger and if he pulls off his plans, nobody in this family will be safe!"

Mabel gasped.

Nobody...?

"Fortunately, there should be a way to shield us a way from his mental tricks. A way to Bill-proof the shack." He stated as he drew a map of the shack on paper, muttering things to himself such as: "All I have to do is place some moonstones here and here and sprinkle some mercury..." He then paused and tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Let's see, I always forget what the last ingredient is..." Ford flipped open his maroon 6-fingered hand journal to a page then read over it then let out a heavy sigh. "Ugh, Unicorn hair."

"That's not like...rare is it?" The boy asked.

"It's hopeless." Stanford sighed and fixed his glasses once more as they began to slide down. He got back to looking at his prized possession of a book. "Unicorns reside deep within an enchanted glade, and their hairs can only be obtained by a pure good-hearted person who goes on a magical quest to find them."

Mabel grinned and then let out the biggest and highest squeal one could ever hear. "GRUNKLE FORD CAN I PLEASE GO ON THIS QUEST? I am literally obsessed with unicorns! My first word was unicorn, I once made my own unicorn by taping a traffic cone to a horse's head...are you even looking at the sweater i'm wearing right now?!" She gestured to her clothing which had a pink unicorn on it and a warm-colored background. "Not to mention i'm probably the most pure-hearted person in this room." She beamed.

"That's true, she has a point."

"I can't argue there." Her brother agreed.

"So can I go? Please please? I'LL GIVE YOU MY BLOOD!" The girl shouted while pulling up her sweater sleeve and showing her arm which she was having no hesitation in offering the red liquid which was inside her body.

"Very well." He nodded. "But it won't be easy. Here: take this." The old man then gave his 1st journal to her as well as a crossbow. "And this."

"Oooh!" She grinned and took both items.

"I haven't been in this dimension for a while, it's alright to give children weapons, right?"

"Pshhh come on dawg." Mabel tilted the weapon upwards and it accidentally shot through the door's small window, setting off her other uncle's car alarm. Her face went blank with surprise as soon as it did.

"AH!" The gruff, old man voice shouted from outside. "IT'S THE COPS! GUN IT!" The sound of a car screeching and pugs yipping filled the air and then it disappeared as the car drove off.

The preteen girl whipped out her phone and smiled while she put it to her ear. "CANDY! GRENDA! WENDY! Clear the afternoon!" She shouted with excitement before running out of the room.

"So...what're the chances she gets that hair?" Dipper asked while looking at his idol.

"Unlikely." He stated. "If I had to describe unicorns with one word, it would be...frustrating." The old man sighed.

"So...what're we going to do about Bill..?" The boy questioned, looking at Ford still.

"Follow me." He curtly replied.

Stanford Pines rose from his chair and began to walk to the gift shop. With wide eyes, the kid slipped off from his seat and followed behind. While the man pressed the button on his watch to open his door to his lab...which again, was the vending machine, Dipper flipped the shack's gift shop sign to 'CLOSED' and then ran after his uncle. The door slammed shut as soon as he entered and then they both moved to the elevator, in which they both moved to the...second floor? The door slid open with a 'ding' and revealed a room that was eerily filled with the color green. The author stepped out of the elevator and so did the child.

"Welcome to my private studies, the place where I keep my most ancient and secret knowledge." He started walking forward. "Even your uncle Stan doesn't know about this place." He announced as he kept walking.

The 12-year-old followed behind but stopped for a minute when he saw a weird, oddly shaped...thing underneath a cloth. He went to lift it up, but he froze when his uncle spoke.

"Dipper, come along." Still looking at it for a moment, the pubescent boy then turned his attention away and followed again. "If we can't Bill-proof the shack, we're going to have to do the next best thing." He holds up a helmet and shows it. "We're going to have to Bill-proof our minds."

The 12-year-old gasped and the next thing he knew, he was hooked up to a machine with that helmet on and sitting down on a small stool and flipping though a file of his enemy's origins. The files and everything. Then that's then they started the scanning. Ford had hooked up the machine already and programmed it to scan...which seemed like it was going to take a long time. The old man didn't stick around by his side for long and the next thing Dipper saw, his uncle was asleep at his desk. Man, he looked tired. The kid turned around to face the green screen that said only 15% was done of scanning. He groaned and leaned back a bit.

"This is taking forever..." He muttered to himself.

The young Pines twin froze however. He froze when he heard a noise. It was glitching of some sort and it was loud and clear. He turned around and faced the green screen that had words frantically racing across it...all scared and worried:

 _"W-what was that?"_

 _"Calm down..."_

 _"T-that noise is creepy."_

 _"Y-you should wake up Great Uncle Ford."_

He stared at the words...those words that kept racing across the screen. He read the same line over and over, hoping it would happen.

 _"Calm down..."_

He took deep breathes and looked at it again.

 _" ."_

While staring at the words it sort've did work. His breathing rate went down but those words didn't slow down. That glitching let out a familiar cackle. The preteen froze when he heard it. The words raced across the screen faster with even more dialogue.

 _"T-that laugh."_

 _"R-run."_

 _"Wake him up."_

 _"Ignore it."_

 _"I-it's Bill."_

 _"He's going to get you."_

 _"Cower and cry. Let it out. It'll help."_

 _"Stay brave. Be a hero. It's what Ford would do."_

He looked at that last line again over and over with a small nod, trying to convince himself to do so.

 _"It's what Ford would do."_

Right.

 _"Be a hero."_

Dipper closed his eyes and hugged his arms tight. "It's okay...I'm okay..." He spoke quietly to himself.

 _ **"Oh, but are you?"**_

His eyelids snapped open and he yelped as his breathing rate increased. His eyes watered and he looked at the screen. 20%. More glitching and more thoughts and more cackling. He couldn't take it anymore. He got up and yanked the helmet off, then ran over to his uncle and shook him.

"G-great uncle Ford..." His voice quivered a bit.

Then he saw him stand up...with his glasses yellow-tinted. He yelped once more and backed up with watery eyes before he looked around and clutched the rift tight. There was no way on Earth anyone was going to touch that thing with it on his watch. The glowing and galaxy-looking substance inside floated around inside a hard orb that was unfortunately looking like it was going to crack soon. The "author" got up and started walking towards the boy, who started to back up. He would've grabbed the memory gun, but by now it was too far away from his grasp, so he kept backing up.

"Hand over the rift, boy." He said.

"N-no!" Dipper shouted back with the lump in his throat.

The man kept walking forward though. "Listen, P-"

It was too late, he was already freaking out. He was being possessed. He was going to call him that name. "P-PINE TREE?! I-is _THAT_ what you were going to call me?!" He shouted with his quivering voice.

"I was going to say PLEASE, kid!" The author shouted back, continuing to step forward.

"G-great uncle Ford told me..." He started off his sentence and started to get watery eyes. "...H-he told me that you would do ANYTHING to get this r-rift...and i'm not going to let it happen." The 12-year-old boy choked out with his watery, quivering voice.

"Calm down..." The man said as he kept stepping towards him.

He heard the cackle and instead of trying to fight back, he listened to the sentence on the screen. He backed up into the corner and held the rift tight, then just curled up and cried as the man got closer and closer until he was looming over him. Usually this would be the part where he would stand up and be a hero...but with what army? No weapon, and that body Bill was using had a GUN and he was much stronger than a child for sure. The man froze.

"...Dipper...?" The author's voice said quietly and calmly

The 12-year-old looked up with tears dripping down his face to see his uncle. No slitted pupils, and his glasses weren't tinted yellow. "G-great u-uncle Ford..?" He quietly spoke as well.

The man nodded. "It's alright, Dipper...that wasn't Bill. I can assure you that...but...you did manage to keep the rift safe, so if it had been Bill...next time you would want to think about getting a weapon, hm?"

He sniffled and gave a small nod. "M-mhmm."

Stanford put out his 6-fingered hand as an offer to help him up, which the child took, standing up again. His legs were a bit shaky and so was...well...everything. Dipper handed over the fragile orb that he had protected so. The old man looked at his nephew. Had he really scared him that much? He usually wasn't this jumpy..

"I-I'm sorry I unplugged the machine from me..." The preteen said quietly.

The author gave a small chuckle. "It's okay, Dipper. It's not broken, we could finish perhaps later?"

"M-maybe." He looked around and got a bad feeling somehow. "I-I'm gonna go out now, thank you for your help." The 12-year-old then backed up and ran...tripping over that cloth from earlier that stuck out. His foot got tangled in it and then that cloth came off...to reveal a Bill statue. He gasped and backed up with his hands as his eyes stung. He shot back up and ran fast. He ran to the elevator and then he ran out of that basement, smashing into Grunkle Stan by accident.

"Woah, kid, where're you going?" The old conman asked as he actually took a good look at his nephew...he looked awful. Scared and paranoid with his eyes shifty and...was that tears on his cheeks?

"U-upstairs." He replied back and went to run off again but was caught when Stan grabbed his arm.

"Hold it, kiddo." He spoke and looked at the kid. "You alright?"

"I-I'm fine." Dipper choked out and tugged to be let free.

"You're stuttering, kid."

"I-I do it all the time." He argued back.

"...Kid, Dipper, please." He released his grip from his arm and put his hand on his shoulder.

"I-I..." The boy started off then shook his head, pulling his hat down a bit. "I-I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Well...if ya ever need to say somethin', don't hesitate, alright?"

The preteen nodded and Stan let him be as he ran upstairs, almost tripping over some of the wooden steps. His footsteps ran until you couldn't hear them anymore and it mashed with the door shutting. Just then, Stanford came out of the machine, looking around.

"Have you seen Dipper?" He questioned when he got a weird look from his brother.

"Oh, I dunno, that kid who looked terrified? Oh, yeah, i've seen him. What did you do, Poindexter?!"

"What did I do?"

"You're the only one who was around him." He scoffed.

"Well, yes, he was acting skittish earlier, but he didn't tell why."

Stan blinked and then sighed. "Maybe it'll blow over, I mean you still have that unicorn voodoo plan?"

"The unicorn hair, yes, but-"

As if on cue, Mabel bursted into the room along with her friends who were...they were all covered in rainbow. Candy and Grenda dropped a treasure chest on the table while the girl Pines twin smashed her hand on the table, also holding rainbows.

"Did somebody say unicorn hair?"

"..." The author blinked, genuinely surprised. "You-you did it!" He grinned and she let go of the hair so he could have it.

"Is it okay?"

"Okay? It's perfect! You saved your family, you're a good person, Mabel."

Tears welled up in the girl's eyes but they went away after a moment. She beamed and explained how the unicorn had generously given away treasure to make them go away and how the whole unicorn pure-of-heart thing was just a big scam all along. After Candy, Grenda, and Wendy went home, and after she got cleaned up, she looked around.

"Where's Dippingsauce? I thought he wanted to go help put out that unicorn hair?" She asked confused.

"Heh, well, I think he would've...but I'm not sure. Try looking up in your room?" The older Stan twin suggested before walking out of the room and outside with glue and the hair.

Mabel then headed up the rickety, old, stairs and walked to their room door. From inside it sounded like sniffling and small mutters. She bit her lip and knocked on the door softly. All at once those noises stopped.

"Dipper? I'm coming in, bro."

When she pushed open their room door, her eyes scanned over the room and she found a lump under his blanket...and it was either shivering or shaking. The girl twin bit her lip and walked over to her brother's bed. That blanket was shaking.

"Dip...you okay...?" She asked quiet and softly.

"I-I'm fine." His voice said back...but it was shaking slightly.

"...You can tell me anything, you know that, right? I promise I won't tell anyone."

"I-I know you won't."

"...You gonna help Grunkle Ford to put on the unicorn hair around the shack?"

"No thanks."

That was odd. "You sure you're okay..?" She asked back again.

"Mhmmm." The blanket said with a small sniffle.

"Alright..if you say so." Mabel said then looked at the blankets again...before running over and hugging him. The blanket flinched but he accepted the hug. "It's okay...I'm here..."

After a moment of hugging it out, she let go and he sniffled. "T-thanks, Mabel."

She let out a small smile. "No problem, bro."

"...I'm...i'm going to sleep now.." The blanket said and she nodded.

"Well...it is late...I should probably too."

"N-night, Mabel.."

She looked over at her brother who was bundled up in those covers, not coming out. "...Do you want a plushie? Those help me sometimes when i'm scared.."

Then, his face poked out of his blankets and he gave a slow nod. "M-mhmm."

Mabel gave a small smile then pulled out a soft-looking giraffe plush and gave it to him. "That's , but he likes to go by the short-name: or ." She announced as he nodded.

"O...okay." He spoke quietly and pulled in the stuffed animal closer to him as he finally removed the covers from his head. It was getting hot in there anyways.

After the older twin got changed for bed in the bathroom, she came back in and flopped on her bed. "Night, bro."

"Night Mabel.."

Dipper hugged the plushie close and it made him feel safe. He was okay, the shack was okay, Mabel was okay, his family was okay...there was nothing to worry about. Closing his eyes tight, after a bit of struggle, he managed to fall asleep...but couldn't help at feel something clawing in the back of his mind, just as well as the feeling of being watched.


	3. Chapter Two

**((I'm not going to specify what part in here is a small spoiler to the journal, but there is a small spoiler for people who haven't read it yet, so I would suggest that if you don't want a small spoiler that you should wait to read this until you have the journal if you want. To all of you who don't mind, or who are ready for this to start, LET US BEGIN!))**

The night went the same as most night went...or more specifically the last month or so. Ever since the mark of half of the summer to be precise. The night containing the horrifying, disturbing, terrible nightmares. Yes, he'd tried dream catchers...tons of them. Heck, he had one on his nose because there were so many that Mabel made for him. Homemade, store-bought, it was all the same result. Unlucky. As soon as the moon was the only bright circle in the sky, that's when he considered it the worst time of the day. He didn't want to sleep sometimes, no matter how tired he was.

After Mabel's Sock Opera is just when things got from bad to worse. Dipper had fallen on his bed from exhaustion that night, wincing at all his wounds, but when he woke up, he found them all bandaged up with a first aid kit nearby, courtesy of Mabel. One of the first things he did that morning(since Mabel insisted that he should get at least a bit more rest than usual)was grab the journal from the table. He snatched a pen and went to write down yesterday's entry...when he saw it had already been done for him. His sister had written in it...and it showed a picture of Bipper and...some note on the next page beside it. It wasn't from his twin...so he decided to have a look.

 **"Note to self: possessing people is hilarious!"**

 _'It's from Bill'_ he thought silently as his eyes continued to skim down that page.

 **"To think of all the sensations I've been missing out on-burning, stabbing, drowning. It's like a buffet tray of fun! Once I destroy that journal, I'll enjoy giving this body it's grand finale-by throwing it off the water tower! Best of all, people will just think Pine Tree lost his mind, and his mental form will wander in the mindscape forever. Want to join him, Shooting Star?"**

After that, his eyes wished he had not seen it. That scared him to death(pun not intended). Not only was Bill out to kill him, but he could've killed his sister in the act too if he had won that Sock Opera. The boy's arms hugged the stuffed animal tight as the memory replayed in his head.

That was his nightmare for the night.

Dipper was staring at the page with the note..that somehow had little droplets of blood on it. Right after re-reading it, his breathing pace increased as he placed a hand on his forehead with his eyes watery. Then, the page started to have even more red drops as it seemed to write something in it...

 _ **"you aRe not safe."**_

His eyes widened. But wait, there was more.

 ** _"yoU cannot escape me."_**

The last words were written the messiest of them all.

 _ **"give iN, Pine Tree."**_

The 12-year old stared in horror as the page was seen with the red writing that soon started running down the page and dropping onto the floor in small droplets. He backed up and froze when he felt something hit(or touch, it felt the same)his back. The hairs on his arm stood up as he had the courage to turn around to face what it was.

Huge mistake.

A large black figure with sharp teeth, gooey and malicious, stared at him with red beady eyes. It lunged forward, and before the boy had any time to react, it was too late.

Dipper jolted awake, letting out a small scream as he found himself drenched in sweat, with the journal at his side as well as the stuffed animal his sister gave him that night. On the table was a plate of food sitting next to his watch. He squinted at his watch, which read: _'10:18AM'_ then looked at the plate, which had a (probably cold)breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. He wasn't that hungry anyways...

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he slipped out of his bed, putting on a fresh pair of everything since it all seemed to be wet from last night's "dream". With the finishing touch, he put his blue trucker hat on and headed downstairs, the journal stuffed inside his vest. Sometimes that thing was heavier than it lead on to be...or look. He didn't _want_ to look at it, but who knew what could happen today. Grabbing the plate, he walked out of the room, biting his lip but keeping silent as he walked down the rickety steps of the wooden stairs.

The boy poked his head into the kitchen and gave a weak smile as he saw his sister and Stan, and even Grunkle Ford there. Oh, and Waddles too. His sister was one of the first ones to look over at him.

"Hey, Dip-Dip!" She waved from across the table even though they weren't far apart at all. "Didja sleep n' eat well?" She grinned, anxious for an answer.

"Oh, um, yeah...sure." He walked over to the trash can and scraped the cold food inside of it, hearing it drop on other discarded items.

"I was thinking about going to the park later on and bringing Waddles! He needs his exercise, not just when he's on my videos, running for ice cream with those cute little gym shorts." She giggled.

"Sounds cool." He rubbed his eyes and put the plate inside the sink with another pile.

"Get started on those dishes, will ya?" Stan ordered as he sat there, not looking up from his morning paper and sipping his coffee.

"What?! But Grunkle Stan-"

"I said do it!" He ordered.

The kid grumbled before pulling yellow rubber gloves over his hands, releasing them with a _'smack'_ as they did indeed, smack his hand as they rested on top of them. With his eyebrows furrowed, he scrubbed the dishes with the sponge, bubbles slipping off of the plates and being replaced with a clean surface as they got rinsed off with H20. Finally, after everyone's plates were done, he let out a sigh of relief and ripped off the rubber gloves, glaring at where his uncle had been sitting...who knows how long ago. He peeked at his watch and groaned, seeing the day was pretty much halfway over. _'12:30PM'_ really meant half the day was done.

His noodle legs carried him out to the next room, which was the living room. Stan was watching the famous: _"Duchess Approves"_ silently. It was actually pretty funny when he didn't notice his nephew standing there because he didn't have the excuse of not finding the remote, he was fully into that sappy movie. Sneaking past the room, he saw his sister putting a collar and leash on her pig with a smile.

"Hey, Dippin' Sauce!" She smiled again. "I was waiting for you to be done so we could go together."

His eyes widened a little bit. "Oh...uh, thanks, Mabel." He gave a small smile back.

"No problem! We haven't really been to the Gravity Falls park anyways, so I figured it would be fun."

 _And an excuse to stay away from any weirdness._ "Right..."

"You ready?"

A nod. "Yeah."

"Awesome!" She grinned, showing off her braces before opening the door and running out with her pig to the front.

Her brother shouted out that they were leaving the shack for a couple hours, and his uncle's response was the same as always: "If you get caught by the cops, I don't know you!" The kid rolled his eyes as he headed out, shutting the door behind himself. His feet trudged across the dirt road, a little bit farther behind his sister and her pig companion. But finally, they made it.

The park was a bit empty and it looked a little run-down, not to mention, but it still was functional? While Mabel and Waddles went off for boyfriend-searching, the male twin sat on the faded yellow park bench, that was a bit creaky. He put his head in his hands as he sighed. Ever have that feeling where you feel sick, but you're perfectly fine? Yeah, that was the situation here. His stomach twisted so it felt like it was all in knots as he let out a small groan. The day couldn't just end, would it?

Then, as if things couldn't get worse, he heard some small snickers as he looked up. Bullies at 2'o-clock.

 _Why..._

 _Just why?_

 _Did the universe hate him?_

"Well, well, well, lookie who we got here." The leader, the biggest of them all said as he snickered, now standing in front of the noodle-armed kid.

"It's Dipstick!" The two others said together then just laughed like hyenas.

The Pines Twin stood up and frowned, even though his stomach made him feel like he was going to hurl. "Just go away..." He went to walk away, but the two smaller goonies snatched both his arms.

"Woah, woah, woah, where do you think _YOU'RE_ going?"

"Maybe somewhere where I can't catch the ugly disease." He spat out with a frown.

He heard the leader inhale those words sharply as he glared daggers. "You wanna be a smartass? I know what people like those get." He raised his huge fist as a threat. "Say something. I dare you."

The twin remained silent with a glare on his face.

"Come on, no snarky remark you gotta say to my face?"

Nothing.

He stared at his own fist then smirked anyways as he raised it in the air. "I think I'll just punch you for the heck of it."

Dipper's eyes widened. He wanted to be able to use both eyes, thank you very much. Looking around frantically, he managed to yank an arm free. "Not if I punch you first!" He choked out as he shoved the leader back, causing him to stumble. Then, he shoved the other two and ran.

Fast.

His heart pounded as he heard the sound of his feet hitting the ground hard as well as shoutings of: "GET HIM!" And screams that showed they were not going to give up. Thumps of his heart and shoes hitting the ground mixed together as he went as far as his weak legs could carry him.

It was just unlucky that there happened to be a huge root right in front of him. He yelped as he tumbled downs hill, banging his head into a tree with a cry as tears leaked down his face. He groaned and sat up, swaying side-to-side as he tried not to lose balance. His legs, shaking and noodle-y, stood up as his body stumbled back and forth. His vision was blurry, but he swore he saw eyes watching him from the trees. The eyes were white with a yellow outline...well that's what he saw. The 12-year-old hissed in pain as he put his hand to his head..and when he looked at it. It was red. Blood. He hit his head _that_ hard?

The air in his lungs were starting to run out as he coughed and struggled to breathe as he tried to walk with shaking legs.

"M-M-MABEL!" He screeched, trying to shout as loud as possible.

"G-GRUNKLE STAN!"

No response.

 _"S-SOMEONE! HELP!"_

The only thing that was coming to his mind was murmurs and evil cackling. He wanted it to stop. He wanted to be home.

His breathing became fast and jagged as he looked around. Speaking of looking around, with a blink of an eye, the sky went from day, to sunset, to night. The stars in the sky twinkled as those noises repeated over and over as black began to edge around his vision.

Screams, cries, howls, murmurs, and cackles.

Screams, howls, cries, murmurs and cackles.

Pain.

Pain went through his body. His head. His stomach. His legs. His arms. Everything.

The cackling grew louder as it rung inside his head like if someone banged on a gong or if the bell on the tower went off at the strike of a new hour.

Black formed around the corners of his eyes...and black was only seen now...except for the eyes watching him. Those could be seen even if his eyes were shut.

Then, his aching body collapsed on the forest floor.


End file.
